Primer on Corporate Governance

Spain has a civil law-based legal system, and court decisionsare not a source of law but are of interpretative value. Theprivatization of large state-owned firms, liberalization, integrationwith the European Union, and the launch of the euro haveall contributed to the transformation of Spain's financial systeminto a modern market. This book covers the main featuresof the Spanish model of corporate governance and will helpyou understand the characteristics of a civil law and a bank-orientedfinancial system in which banks play an active rolerelative to markets. For example, the bank orientation within Spain is built sothat the corporate governance system relies heavily on theinternal mechanisms of governance. Spain also bypasses thestandard procedures of controlling shareholders mitigatingconflicts between management and minority shareholders;instead, Spain allows controlling shareholders to mitigate theconflict between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders. Each chapter provides an inside look at the functioningof both internal and external mechanisms of corporate control.